Home  >>  Analysis  >>  October 2, 2008, Ripples of Genocide: An Update on the Democratic Republic of Congo, Part Two.

TOOLS PRINT E-MAIL OCTOBER 2, 2008, RIPPLES OF GENOCIDE: AN UPDATE ON THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, PART TWO. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: Can I also ask you about the continuing role of foreign countries, but specifically Rwanda, in the conflict in the east? As many of our audience will know, the conflict in Congo was really sparked in the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda when close to a million refugees as well as the regime that committed the genocide fled to Eastern Congo and regrouped. What is the continuing role of Rwandan militias? You mentioned earlier the FDLR, but also the Rwandan government in the conflict? COLIN THOMAS-JENSEN: The situation in Congo, the wars that rip the country apart in the late 1990s and early 21st century would not have happened had it not been for the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and the failure of the international community to deal effectively not only with the violence that occurred in Rwanda, but with the aftermath and the massive displacement that followed. As you noted, the regime that committed the genocide, killed 800,000 people or more in 100 days. The Rwandan government of course has a very strong interest in the stability of eastern Congo. It’s a place from which they can be attacked, and when those attacks were going on in the late 1990s. That’s when Rwanda intervened, invaded and supported the rise of a new regime in Congo. The problem is that at the same time Rwanda and Uganda and other governments in the region took the opportunity created by conflict and created by the vacuum of the Congolese state to engage in systematic looting of the resources of the country. If Congo had a functioning state, it could be the breadbasket for Africa and one of the wealthiest countries in the world if you look strictly at what’s lying beneath the surface in terms of mineral wealth. But foreign countries all the way from colonial times, King Leopold and the Belgians, through the Cold War and now outside actors have consistently exploited Congolese resources to the detriment of Congolese people themselves. Now Rwanda is very much involved in the conflict in Eastern Congo. The renegade general I spoke about earlier, Laurent Nkunda, is a former officer in the rebel group that the Rwandan army set up to serve as a proxy in Eastern Congo during the wars. Those links are still there. And one of the demands that Laurent Nkunda makes, political demands, is the return still of 45,000 Congolese Tutsi refugees who are in Rwanda. It’s within that community of displaced and often hopeless individuals that he’s able to recruit forces for himself. He’s also received, we know, some support from elements inside Rwanda who continue to have commercial interests in Eastern Congo that he in some ways is able to secure for them. But the level to which the Rwandan government is actively involved in the exploitation of eastern Congo is unclear. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: In other neighboring countries, do they still maintain an interest in what happens in Congo, particularly in the east? COLIN THOMAS-JENSEN: Certainly at the height of the war which was known as Africa’s First World War, you had up to 13 countries who were actively directly or indirectly involved in conflict in the Congo. The front lines were really the Rwandans, the Ugandans, the Angolans, the Namibians, the Zimbabweans, all very involved directly in fighting on the ground. Now the Rwandans maintain interest. The Ugandans certainly have a strong interest in what’s happening to their western flank, particularly with Uganda and rebel groups who have safe haven inside Congo. These include the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has long been known as one of the most violent and noxious rebel armies in Africa known for recruiting children to serve as soldiers or sex slaves. The Ugandans maintain certainly a readiness to deal with insecurity arising in Eastern Congo. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: Candice, I know you were recently in Congo. Can you give us a sense of the general feeling of security or insecurity throughout the region? What is the landscape of people’s security threats now? CANDICE KNEZEVIC: I think people feel very much insecure in the country. Despite that a ceasefire agreement was signed in January, violence continues. Two hundred civilians have been killed since that ceasefire agreement was signed. There have been 200 ceasefire violations in the past couple of months, so there is still very much a feeling of insecurity in the country. The other side effect of that is violence, sexual violence in particular, against women has drastically increased. The crimes of rape and sexual violence against women and girls are being committed by the various rebel groups by the Congolese army and now it’s becoming even more regular in the civilian community and being committed by civilians. So women are very vulnerable in the country and very insecure, particularly in the IDP camps where the Congolese army is often stationed outside the camps around the camps for the camps’ protection, but then when women have to leave the camp to collect firewood or water, they’re often violated and attacked by the Congolese army. The very people who are supposed to be protecting them are attacking them. I think the women and girls in the country are getting very tired of this situation, very exhausted. There are a lot of organizations on the ground who are doing really great work to try and mitigate the vulnerability of women and girls, from working on systems for harvesting rainwater so that women don’t have to go very far to get a source of water, and looking into alternative sources of fuel so that women don’t have to go out into the Bush to collect firewood. There are a lot of different things that organizations are doing to mitigate the vulnerability of women and girls, but it very much remains an insecure situation for them. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: One of the armed forces on the ground that we haven’t addressed yet is MONUC, which is the UN peacekeeping force. What is their role today? COLIN THOMAS-JENSEN: MONUC was deployed by the UN Security Council to support the implementation of a peace agreement and elections. Now post-election, MONUC has gone through somewhat of an identity crisis. In theory MONUC is there to support the Congolese government’s efforts to stabilize and secure insecure parts of the country. However as Candice just noted one of the most voracious predators on civilians, if not the most voracious predator, is the Congolese army itself. MONUC at this point is engaged, one, in helping to report on the situation on the ground. Two, it’s engaged in some civilian protection activities. Given the scale of the problem and given the number of forces that MONUC has on the ground -- and right now it’s at about 17,000 -- there’s certainly much, much more that UN peacekeepers could be doing to more assertively protect civilians. As Candice noted, in many places the protection of civilians is left to the Congolese army, the FRDC. Civilians are well aware of the abuses that FDRC troops are capable of, and yet in many places MONUC is not to be seen; or when they’re seen it’s during the day, not at night when most attacks are happening, when women are being raped. Women and children are being abducted. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: But MONUC has been asserting themselves -- obviously not adequate to the situation -- but more than peacekeepers have in other situations. They have been going after militias. What are some of the specific things you think they could be doing to make a stronger impact in improving the situations? COLIN THOMAS-JENSEN: MONUC does have a good track record in Ituri which is one of the most affected regions of the war. In the Kivus however, we haven’t really yet seen MONUC take a stronger line. In many cases they’re there to protect and hold major towns, but it’s in the rural areas, areas that are far away from urban centers where you have the daily grind of violence against civilians. In terms of what they can do; one, I’d like to see MONUC deploy more strategically, deploy in areas where civilians are being targeted more than other areas and we know where those places are. Two, I think MONUC has to be much more assertive in its patrols. The last thing I would say is MONUC is not simply a military operation. We’ve seen in stabilization operations all over the world that you need a strong civilian component. While MONUC has a lot of troops, its ability to do the type of political work it needs to do -- the peace building at a local level; its ability to really properly monitor the human rights situation and report regularly on the litany of abuses that are occurring; its ability to support the capacity of the Congolese government and press them to implement some of the things they need to do under the terms of various peace agreements -- that support is not there. They need to be a much more robust civilian operation to deal with this very complex situation in the east. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: MONUC is obviously one aspect of international response to the situation in Congo. Can one say that there is an overarching international response? The word “international” often covers over for various national interests being pursued at odds with each other. How would you sum up various international interests in Congo and how they are responding to the situation? COLIN THOMAS-JENSEN: The major interest that we saw and a point around which the international community could really rally was elections. Now that the elections are over everyone is recalibrating, recalculating what really are our interests in Congo? For the United States and for the Europeans and other external actors, there’s a clear interest in securing and stabilizing what really should be the anchor for economic activity in Central Africa and perhaps all of Africa. Congo could really be the engine that drives the economy of the continent and that would then contribute to global economic health. As long as Congo is wallowing in its own misery, many African countries are going to suffer as a result. There’s also I think regional interests as we discussed earlier, the Rwandans and Ugandans as well as other neighboring states all have an interest in Congo’s stability, but at the same time there are non-state actors in Congo and outside Congo who participate in an underground economy that is essentially there to loot the country and Congolese citizens don’t derive nearly the benefit they should from the riches that Congo has. The other major outside actor that’s emerged since the war and that has growing interests across Africa is China. China has now invested 8.5 billion dollars in the Congo in the form of loans. We’re seeing now the value with which outside actors see in the Congo, the potential for economic growth if the country can be stabilized. The Chinese and other external investors are not going to be able to see a return on their investment really until the Congolese state can be the type of partner, can implement the type of policies to support the economic growth that’s going to be critical for lasting stability and security. It’s really at this point up to the Congolese government to take advantage of the interests of outside actors, the interest of investors, and leverage that into some lasting change across the country. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: Candice, finally, can you tell us what Enough is going to be doing as part of the new Congo campaign that you’re launching? CANDICE KNEZEVIC: As Colin mentioned, having seen the dissipation of interest by the international community over the past few years, the Enough Project has decided to launch an awareness raising and advocacy campaign in the United States that will hopefully eventually become a more international campaign in the fall called Raise Hope for Congo, the goal of which is to protect and empower Congo’s women. Enough has decided to launch this campaign to begin to cultivate a permanent constituency in the U.S. who can be activists for the Congo and for ending the conflict and protecting and empowering Congo’s women. We’ll be providing a lot of resources for activists to educate themselves and their communities about the conflict in Congo and its impact on women and girls. We’ll be spearheading various policy advocacy campaigns that we hope to get our activists involved in. We’ll be launching a petition to the future President of the United States laying out what we think the President should do to bring about an end to the conflict in Congo. We’ll also be doing advocacy to increase the news coverage of what’s happening in Congo, because if it’s not being covered on the news and people aren’t hearing about it, then we’re not going to get as many people involved. So the more people know about what’s happening there and see it on the news and read about it in the papers, the more they’re likely to get involved. I think there’s a very, very big role that American citizens can play in standing in solidarity with the Congolese and bringing about a lasting peace in that country. What was striking to me was for the many different Congolese that I spoke to when I was in Congo, I asked them what do you want me to tell Americans when I go back? And all of them without fail said “Please tell them about what’s happening here, and ask them to advocate for us.” Because they understand that Americans have the ability and the power to really be able to make a difference, and American citizens can advocate with our government to get the US to move Congo up on its foreign policy agenda. There are a lot of great ways that we’ll be able to get American citizens involved here, and hopefully eventually take it more on an international level and really raise the profile of what’s happening in Congo, and ultimately protect and empower Congolese women. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: Thank you. And I encourage all our listeners to revisit the online exhibit that we made with John Prendergast and Angolina Jolie. As we’ve heard not enough has changed since then. But you can also visit the museum’s website to learn more about Congo today. And we encourage you to visit Enough’s website on their Raise Hope for Congo Campaign: www.raisehopeforcongo.org. Thank you both for joining me. NARRATOR: You have been listening to Voices on Genocide Prevention, from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. To learn more about preventing genocide, join us online at www.ushmm.org/conscience. There you'll also find the Voices on Genocide Prevention weblog.